A recent concert by the distinguished Emerson String Quartet (Eugene Drucker, violin; Philip Setzer, violin; Lawrence Dutton, viola; Paul Watkins, cello) at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. paired Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 15 in E-flat minor, Op. 144

Just the mention of Arnold Schoenberg strikes fear in the hearts and ears of most listeners. But can you guess what struck the fear of god into Arnold Schoenberg? Somewhat ironically, the composer experienced a paralyzing fear of the number

We’ve already looked at Modest Mussorgsky’s creation for piano, Pictures at an Exhibition. This best-known of Mussorgsky’s works had an afterlife as an orchestral work that has resulted in dozens of orchestrations. There are also arrangements for other performing forces

An engaging interpreter of baroque and contemporary music as well as of the mainstream symphonic repertoire, Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado maintains a busy schedule in the concert hall, opera house and recording studio. He holds the position of Principal Conductor

Carl Maria von Weber : Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 73, J. 114 The comparatively late addition of the clarinet family to our modern catalogue of musical instruments at the turn of the 18th-century immediately spawned countless

Mitrofan Petrovich Belaieff (1839-1904) was a music publisher in Imperial Russia but made his money in the wood industry. Despite inheriting his father’s business and being successful in it for some 30 years, his heart was really with music. He

Babadjanian: Polyphonic Sonata – II Fugue From Babadjanian: Piano Solo Works (2014) Released by Grand Piano/Naxos Babadjanian: Polyphonic Sonata – II FugueOne of the former Soviet Union’s leading composers and a member of the so-called Armenian ‘Mighty Handful’, Arno Babadjanian

50 days after the Resurrection of Christ, the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles. The biblical narrative states, “And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they